Thursday, January 21, 2010

Nokia announces FREE Voice Navigation for Nokia phones!




"Global Navigation is now Free! Forever!"

- Arshia Varlet, Marketing Manager, Nokia (21/1/2010)



Nokia has just announced that voice navigation is going to be made free for all Nokia phones that can run the new OVI Maps. This new version of Ovi Maps is immediately available for download for these 10 Nokia handsets, with more Nokia smartphones expected to be added in the coming weeks:


  • Nokia N97 mini
  • Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
  • Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition
  • Nokia E52
  • Nokia E55
  • Nokia E72
  • Nokia 5230
  • Nokia 6710 Navigator
  • Nokia 6730 classic
  • Nokia X6

Amongst other things OVI Maps now allows you to see the current weather and upcoming events in the city that you are in. One of the most commonly asked questions over SMS is "Where are you now?" OVI Maps now allows you to even share your current location to friends on Facebook, taking social networking to another level and in many ways, away from the computer and back to real life. Upgrade to the new Ovi Maps by heading over to this website. It is only an 8MB download.

So how much data does navigation use?

 Arshia Varlet from Nokia explained in the online press conference:

Here are some real life examples to give an indication of the amount of data that could be used. These numbers naturally vary depending on the density of the road network, amount of 3D landmarks etc.
• Get A-GPS fix and view your location in your home country with preloaded maps: 4 kB
• Search and view Empire State Building with preloaded maps: 50 kB
• Search and browse map in one city in 3D map mode: 2-6 MB
• Create and show a route from Place A to Place B (56 km): 30kb
• Drive through the created route: 0 kB
• Drive 100 km with no preloaded maps: 5.1MB

The advantage of being able to download the map also means a massive data saving for those on a tighter data allowance (eg in Australia). 






If you are looking to upgrade, we recommend $29 cap plan with Three for the Nokia E72. Read some of the reviews in the more recent posts about the Nokia E72. So what are your thoughts? Leave your comments below. 

7 comments:

  1. 1. This is odd on a Nokia E63 blog when it's not available on Nokia E63

    2. I find that the existing basic Nokia maps on my E63 are very poor. Sydney, Australia suburb names are completely wrong, non-standard, and have nothing to do with reality. The whole of the Sydney north shore gets named "North Sydney" as a suburb name, while the actual suburb name is not available. This is hopeless.

    3. Google maps (free already on the Nokia E63) is more accurate than Nokia maps.

    4. Even on the Nokia E63 which does not have GPS, Google maps quickly always figures out the user's location to within a couple of hundred metres and usually to within about 10 metres, whether I am connected via wifi or 3G. It is remarkable. Nokia maps just says "no GPS - don't know where you are" and displays a blank screen.

    5. Nokia mpas has a bad user interface, and annoyingly always, repeatedly, asks if I want to turn on Bluetooth when I have it permanently off and never ever use it. This is bad.

    I see Nokia failing hopelessly in the software. They need to get a grip or they'l be reduced to selling cheap handsets in the third world while Andoid eats their market.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What an awesome development!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can anyone tell us how to use the OVI store PLEASE? Nokia never reply.
    We have 5 of these phones. Only 1 will let us use the store. Get wrong password. unknown user, captcha incorrect.Sign in fine on PC, but just wont have it on phone.
    not of good for downlading to phne.
    Really appreciate some advice, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. i need voice navigation in my new E 72.i installed ovi map.but voice guidance is not availabel

    ReplyDelete
  5. In Brazil they are charging R$25,99 for the year subscription and R$7,99 for 30 days, which are decent prices. But why should I be paying for the service when other nokia users get it for free? I paid a good amount of money for my cel phone and do not understand why the heck nokia is discriminating it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. @Pen did you work out the Ovi store? shouldnt be too hard.

    @Name - voice guidance is certainly available on the Nokia E72.

    @anonymous - are you using a Nokia E63? Free voice navigation is only available to those phones mentioned above.

    ReplyDelete
  7. @name try this link for E72 free navigation http://maps.nokia.com/services-and-apps/ovi-maps/downloads#/nokia-e72/

    ReplyDelete

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